Category: Nature NSW

Nature Kids: Animals Lost and Found

Posted by on in Spring 2022Leave a comment

Hope for the hopping mouse

Mitchell’s Hopping Mouse was presumed extinct in NSW due to habitat loss and feral animals. But since April 2022, 150 of the mice have been reintroduced.

Bred at a South Australian safari park, the mice have been released in western NSW’s Mallee Cliffs National Park in the largest feral predator-free enclosure on mainland Australia!

Find the other species already released, or soon to be re-wilded at Mallee Cliffs …

GOOD NEWS …

Plastics bans start in NSW

Australians have the second biggest single-use plastic use per person in the world, but things are changing for the better …

Lightweight single-use plastic bags have been banned in NSW since June 2022 and from November so will other single-use plastics including straws, cutlery and plates.

Have a look at the 10 worst single-use plastics and eco-friendly alternatives

10 worst single-use plastics and eco-friendly alternatives

Koala colony discovery

Koalas are an endangered species in NSW and also, it turns out, good at blending into the scenery! Two citizen scientists have photographed nearly 80 previously undocumented koalas in Heathcote National Park on Sydney’s southern fringe. It’s hoped that there could be more as-yet-undiscovered koala colonies.

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Wet weather helps pelicans thrive

With extensive flooding and storm damage in 2022, it’s easy to forget that wet weather is not always a bad thing. NSW’s wet summer helped created ideal conditions for native pelicans to breed at Lake Brewster in the Central West. A record-breaking 15,000 nests were recorded at the lake! Research and conservation work has used bands on pelicans to track their movements, as well as artificial intelligence to analyse drone footage.

Look at and listen to some noisy pelican footage

Wild summer sparks ‘extraordinary’ pelican breeding season as 30,000 birds look for mates

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Magpies v Researchers

Researchers testing out backpack-like tracking devices on magpies were surprised to discover an entirely new social behaviour rarely seen in birds. The magpies cooperated … to help each other remove the trackers!

So it’s “back to the drawing board” for researchers on how to collect the data needed on magpie movements.

Read more about the research and magpies here: Altruism in birds? Magpies have outwitted scientists by helping each other remove tracking devices

Don’t forget the fires (poem)

Posted by on in Spring 2022Leave a comment

Lesley Hodges

Don’t forget the fires when it’s cool and moist and starts to rain.
The monster’s only sleeping – don’t treat it with disdain.
We’re feeding it with Carbon,
It will rise and come again.

Don’t forget the terror, lost lives and property,
The trauma and the worry. Thank God for our community.
Don’t forget the billion native animals that used to bless our land.
Those animals left; they need us; we must also give them a hand.

Climate change is real, my friend. It’s showed its teeth this year.
Through floods and ice and mighty fires,
While we had to watch in fear.
Beaches are growing smaller, Pacific islands bear her wrath.
Rivers stopping running and the fish can only gasp.

You can keep on denying. Why not? You say we need our coal.
And gas and fracking and all that stuff.  But they’re doing harm to all.
Still, you want to live the same old way; stay all nice and comfortable.
You don’t want to change a thing – that is what I’m told.

But surely, for our children’s sake, it’s time for something new. 
We could reduce our emissions with a decent strategy or two.
Our economy will benefit if we only play it right,
Instead of losing money from the drought and flood and fire.

We could be a leader to the world –
One that sends a needed voice.
It’s time to make some changes.
It’s time to make the choice.

Book Review: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Posted by on in Spring 2022Leave a comment

Reviewed by Talara Blackwood, a guest at NPA Book Club

Braiding Sweetgrass truly is a book like no other. Each chapter is its own unique journey told in Kimmerer’s whimsical storytelling structure (which some readers mentioned initially struggling to follow). 

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Water Matters

Posted by on in Spring 2022, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Anne Reeves, OAM

“Inaction is not an option; nor is inadequate action.”  (President, Australian Academy of Science, on release of the State of the Environment Report, 19/7/22)

Water is so much more than a resource and a commodity to be managed for human economic benefit; it is the lifeblood that shapes and sustains our world, our rivers and wetlands.

Tanya Plibersek, as Minister for Water and Environment, recognised this in her statements when releasing the previously withheld 2021 State of the Environment Report.  Despite some sweeteners drawing on site specific positive outcomes, the overall picture is not good.  Taken aback by the dismal progress to right water wrongs, the Minister highlighted how hard it would be to deliver on the Murray Darling Basin Plan as finally adopted.  Not a surprise to those who have been tracking attempts to subvert achievement of the spirit of the forward-looking Commonwealth Water Act adopted under John Howard with bi-partisan support back in 2007.

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Vale David Tranter

Posted by on in Spring 2022Leave a comment

David Tranter was born in 1929 and spent his early years in far north Queensland. At University in Brisbane he became involved with the Queensland National Parks Association. Years later he moved to Sydney and met Paul Barnes. That led to David becoming a founding member of the NSW National Parks Association (1957).

David, along with wife Helen, had a strong love of bushwalking and natural areas, and remained a member of NPA until his death in July this year.

David was active with the National Parks Association for many years. In the early years he was involved with the efforts to establish what became the National Parks and Wildlife Service and associated legislation. He served on State Council for many years, including as Secretary. During his time as Secretary, NPA was active in preparing detailed submissions to the Commission of Inquiry into the National Estate (c 1973). These submissions included the various park proposals prepared by the organisation and was accompanied by a chartered flights to show the National Estate Committee some of the proposed areas in Sydney, the Hunter and the Blue Mountains.

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